Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-04-23
FAST DAY SERVICE
interesting Discussion: OF the sabbst tn
Question

Thursday was pleasant, and a large
congregation assembled in the Method;s,
church in observance of Fast Day. and
20 listen to the discussion of the Sabbath
question.
chorus choir consisting mostly of Young
people led the congregation in song. TIA
Pastor read the Proclamation. Rev. NJ
w hite read selection from the ssh chan NJ
Isaiah, and Rev. j. B. Jordan offered PRAYER
MI. Palmer gave the first and longest ad
uress. He said the Sabbath question presents
many phases and links with the manifold in.
terests OF society. We are taught 10 remem.
Der the Sabbath day and keep it holy. so far
the congregation would be IN accord. But
now snail We keep it holy? As we press
/ our investigation We find much not settled
oy precept, but left to the enlightened con.
science of the individual To take a
practical view of the subject, and drive a
few pegs for those that follow to hang their
goods upon, we may note the tendencies of
the times, and the effects of
the incoming abuses. We have swung from
PURITAN severity to the opposite extreme,
from discipline to license, from Conscience
10 crime. As soon as the balmy DAYS for
outdoor amusements are at hand. we shall
hear on Sabbath morning from our river
SIDES and stations the ringing shout, ..All
aboard! All aboard" But were we TO
picture the worst: shall we hear the buzz of
splndles and the clatter of looms i?
The discussion of the labor cues.
ton answers, No. We should have
more work on the Sabbath, mainly
because pleasure must employ more servants.
1T the New England Sabbath were turned in
TO the Sabbath of Paris or Vieuna, our homes
would be emptied, and our young people
pressed into contact with those from whom
they should ''fy as from leper's touch"
The speaker would have the preaching of
the Gospel, the Sabbath school, the sacra-
ment. and the benevolences of the church
depend upon the opportunity furnished BY
the Sabbath.
Mr. Skeele spoke of the different kinds of
Sabbaths, the Jewish, the German. and the
American Sabbath One eccentric concep-
ton of The Sabbath was that man should re-
main III the exact posture that he was in when
the Sabbath found him. If the Americans
held their view we might easily account for
the large number of Sabbath sleepers among
the people. The true idea is that the Sab.
bath is made for man. We are not 70 think
of the Sabbath as first made, and then man
created and pressed into the institution as a
kind of mould in which to shape him, but we
are rather 70 thlnk OF the holy purposes for
which man was made and the Sabbath az in
stituted to accomplish these purposes.
Mr.. White spoke of the great opportunities
of the sacred day and believed it in the pow
er of a faithful church to maintain its OBJ
servance. The people OF God should avoid
giving aid to the Sabbath newspaper innova-
ton and kindred evils
| Mr.. Jordan described Western practices,
showing that going West was too often going
beyond the Sabbath. The observance of the
Sabbath pays every way. The animal needs
Sabbath. The law upon which this institu-
ton is founded spans all the interests of man
from the material to the spiritual.
Mr.. Pettiner followed, enforcing the re
marks on the Sunday paper question.
The services throughout were befitting to
the day, and remarks were frightened by
an intermingliug of pointed and playful SEN
fences, and the meeting was a de cded success